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Stop the Side Quest Hiring Trap · The Science of Leading

• 0:00
  Welcome to the show everybody!
• 0:01
  I'm Claire Monroe, here with Edwin Carrington.
• 0:03
  And Edwin, I want to start with a scenario that I think is going to give a lot of
• 0:07
  small business owners some serious anxiety.
• 0:10
  Imagine it's Tuesday morning.
• 0:11
  You have five tabs open.
• 0:13
  One is a half-written job description, three are scattered PDF resumes from
• 0:18
  candidates who applied on three different websites, and the last tab is your
• 0:22
  calendar, which looks like a chaotic game of Tetris because three people booked over
• 0:26
  each other.
• 0:27
  Ah, the classic "side quest" hiring model.
• 0:30
  You're trying to run a business, but suddenly you've been drafted into full-time
• 0:33
  recruiting with zero prep.
• 0:35
  It is incredibly common, Claire, and honestly, it is a recipe for making expensive,
• 0:41
  gut-feel decisions that you'll regret six months down the line.
• 0:44
  "Side quest" is the perfect way to describe it.
• 0:47
  It's like you're playing an RPG and suddenly you're forced to go forage for berries
• 0:51
  instead of saving the kingdom.
• 0:53
  But why do small businesses fall into this?
• 0:55
  Is it just a lack of software, or is it something deeper?
• 0:58
  It's a mix of both, but mostly it's a tool-matching problem.
• 1:02
  People get confused by the alphabet soup of HR tech.
• 1:05
  They buy a massive HRIS--a Human Resources Information System--thinking it'll solve
• 1:11
  their hiring chaos, only to realize that's like buying a industrial tractor when all
• 1:15
  you needed was a lawnmower to trim the grass.
• 1:18
  An industrial tractor for a lawn.
• 1:20
  That's a great image.
• 1:21
  So, let's break that down.
• 1:22
  What's the actual line between an ATS--an Applicant Tracking System--and an HRIS?
• 1:28
  Because I think a lot of leaders use those interchangeably,
• 1:31
  and they definitely shouldn't.
• 1:32
  They absolutely shouldn't.
• 1:34
  Look, the line is simple: pre-hire versus post-hire.
• 1:37
  An ATS is all about the pipeline.
• 1:40
  It's designed to attract, screen, and move candidates through a workflow before they
• 1:44
  work for you.
• 1:45
  An HRIS is for after they sign the offer letter--payroll, benefits,
• 1:50
  PTO tracking, performance reviews.
• 1:53
  If you try to use an HRIS to manage a busy candidate pipeline,
• 1:57
  it feels like trying to write a novel in Microsoft Excel.
• 2:00
  It's clunky, it's frustrating, and candidates fall through the cracks.
• 2:05
  Writing a novel in Excel!
• 2:06
  I think I just shivered a little bit.
• 2:08
  That sounds painful.
• 2:09
  But on the flip side, if you're a small business hiring maybe two or three people a
• 2:13
  year, do you even need a heavy-duty ATS?
• 2:16
  Or are you just throwing money away on enterprise pricing?
• 2:19
  Well, that's the key.
• 2:21
  You have to match your tool to your actual volume.
• 2:24
  If you're doing occasional hiring--say, under five people a year--you don't need a
• 2:29
  high-end platform with a multi-year contract.
• 2:32
  You need something lightweight, maybe even a simple, highly structured kanban board
• 2:37
  or a basic pay-as-you-go ATS.
• 2:40
  But if you're growing steadily, or looking to scale, you need a system that
• 2:44
  integrates structured assessments early in the process.
• 2:47
  Otherwise, you're just accelerating the rate at which you make bad hires.
• 2:51
  Right, because speeding up a bad process just gets you to a bad result faster.
• 2:56
  And that brings us to the actual evaluation of the human being on the other side of
• 3:00
  the desk.
• 3:02
  We've all been in those unstructured panel interviews where everyone walks out and
• 3:05
  says, "Oh, I liked their energy," or "They felt really dynamic."
• 3:10
  But "energy" doesn't actually predict performance, does it?
• 3:14
  Not even close.
• 3:15
  In fact, unstructured interviews are one of the worst predictors of job performance.
• 3:19
  What actually works is structured data--using objective scorecards and,
• 3:24
  more importantly, behavioral assessments.
• 3:27
  That's where OAD, the Organization and Administration Development system,
• 3:31
  completely changes the game.
• 3:33
  Instead of relying on gut feel, OAD's structured surveys and behavioral assessments
• 3:39
  take the guesswork out of candidate fit by measuring the actual work-related
• 3:43
  behaviors and cognitive patterns required for the role.
• 3:46
  So, instead of just hoping someone is a "good communicator,"
• 3:49
  you're actually measuring how they handle assertiveness, detail,
• 3:52
  or fast-paced change?
• 3:54
  That sounds like shifting from reading tea leaves to actually reading a map.
• 3:58
  Precisely.
• 4:00
  It gives you a hard data point to compare against the actual demands of the job.
• 4:04
  And the best part is, you don't need a six-month IT project to start hiring like
• 4:09
  this.
• 4:10
  You can streamline your entire implementation in under 30 days.
• 4:14
  You build a simple, clean pipeline, upload your core templates,
• 4:18
  automate your calendar scheduling to stop the email tennis,
• 4:21
  and embed OAD assessments right into the early stages.
• 4:25
  Suddenly, your "side quest" is a highly efficient machine.
• 4:28
  Thirty days to go from chaos to structure.
• 4:31
  That is a massive relief for a small team.
• 4:33
  And really, it's about protecting the culture you've built.
• 4:36
  A bad hire doesn't just cost money; it drains the energy of the whole team.
• 4:41
  Exactly.
• 4:42
  Behavioral fit is the invisible glue of high-performing teams.
• 4:47
  When you align a person's natural behaviors with the actual needs of their role,
• 4:51
  productivity spikes and turnover plummets.
• 4:54
  It's that simple.
• 4:55
  If you want to stop guessing and start measuring, you can actually try OAD for
• 4:59
  yourself.
• 5:00
  Go to O-A-D DOT AI to start a free trial and see how structured behavioral data can
• 5:05
  completely streamline your team dynamics.
• 5:08
  Edwin, as always, thanks for the wisdom.
• 5:10
  My pleasure, Claire.
• 5:12
  Let's leave the side quests for the video games.
• 5:14
  Agreed.
• 5:15
  Thanks for listening, everyone.
• 5:16
  We'll see you next time!